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Verification and Non-verification

其他書名	Theme and Technique in Work of Harold Pinter
出版	University of Alberta, 1971
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=yxLb0AEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Verification and non-verification are two concepts that are central to Harold Pinter's dramatic art, both in terms of theme and technique. Non verification is a technique that includes mystification, contradiction. vagueness and ambiguity -- all the devices that impart an air of mystery and a feeling of the proximity of the unknown to Pinter's plays. Verification refers to the attempt to discover the nature of reality that every man must make. Pinter's stated position on this matter is that "The desire for verification is understandable but cannot always be satisfied" (see page two below). This thesis surveys The Room, The Birthday Party and The Dumb Waiter as plays in which the technique of non-verification is all-important. Various aspects of the technique are found to include the juxtaposition of naturalistic detail with unverified characters and situations, the use of extended silence, a concern for the difficulties of communication, contradictions, repetition of indefinite statements, the unexpected arrival of unverifiable characters, unspoken or inconclusive hints, and many other minor facets too numerous to catalogue. TtaDumbJVaiter is also found to contain the germ of some of Pinter's later plays - a character's futile quest for truth. The body of the thesis studies particular plays to discover Pinter's approaches to the problem of verification. In The Caretaker, a particular character enunciates by his very presence the problem of the ambiguity of truth. Moreover, the other characters, inasmuch as they participate in he is by no means simply an imitator of them. Finally, the fact that Pinter's approaches and achievements are important and valid in the modern world is substantiated by certain key passages from The Homecoming and The Dwarfs that both sum up and conclude the argument of the study.